Green-winged Teal

The Green-winged Teal is the smallest duck that occurs in NH, which can be an important field mark when females and non-breeding males occur in the company of other species (they’re close to half the size of a Mallard). Only the Blue-winged Teal might pose an identification challenge, but is a little larger, has a larger bill, and lacks a buffy streak below the tail. In flight both show a green speculum, but the Blue-winged also has the powder blue shoulders for which it is named.

Green-winged Teal are also more common than Blue-winged, and during migration are the most numerous dabbling duck in the state after Mallard and American Black Duck. One reason this species is encountered more frequently than many other migrant ducks is that its breeding range extends much farther east. Rather than being centered on the Great Plains, the Green-winged Teal nests primarily in wooded wetlands across the boreal region of Alaska and Canada. Here in the Northeast, that range extends south into the border states, although the species is very rare and local in New Hampshire and restricted to areas north of the White Mountains.

Perhaps because most of the population nests north of the heavily agricultural Great Plains, Green-winged Teal face fewer risks associated with habitat loss and drought. Populations are generally increasing or stable, including those in Maine and eastern Canada that are the sources of the birds that migrate through New Hampshire.